The North consists of the northern half of Westeros and is ruled by House Stark from Winterfell. The North is nearly as big as the other six kingdoms combined, but only sparsely populated.
Ned must travel south to help the king and find out who killed the previous Hand of the King, Jon Arryn , while trying to protect his family from the Lannisters. As he tries to uncover the reasons behind Jon Arryn's death he uncovers the dark secrets about the Lannisters that Arryn himself died trying to expose.
And beyond the wall, Ned's bastard son Jon Snow joins the Night's Watch, an ancient brotherhood sworn to watch over the massive Wall that separates the Seven Kingdoms from the dangerous unknown beyond. But an ancient force, long believed dead, threatens the land.
The series begins with Ned Stark being asked to be the chief advisor (known as the Hand of the King) to King Robert Baratheon. Ned and his wife Catelyn receive a letter from Catelyn's sister, Lysa that gives them reason to believe that rival House Lannister - to which the King's wife Cersei belongs - was the cause of the previous Hand's death.
The Wall is a huge structure of ice, stone and magic on the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. It is home to the Night's Watch, a brotherhood sworn to protect the realms of men from the threats beyond the Wall.
Meanwhile, across the Narrow Sea in the continent of Essos, the exiled, arrogant Viserys Targaryen , son of the former king whose throne was usurped, believes he still has the rightful claim to the throne. He marries off his younger sister, Daenerys Targaryen , whom he has psychologically and physically abused for years, to the leader of the Dothraki warrior tribe, Khal Drogo , in an exchange for an army to return to Westeros and take the throne.
Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television series created for HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels, the first of which is titled A Game of Thrones.
Most of the story takes place on the continent Westeros, which consists of the Seven Kingdoms (the North, the Iron Islands, Mountain and Vale, the Rock, the Storm Kings, the Reach, Dorne) and an unmapped area to the north, separated by a massive wall of ice and old magic.
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The series, set on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos at the end of a decadelong summer, interweaves several plot lines.

The Ice and Fire story can be considered to be set in a post-magic world where people no longer believe in supernatural things such as the Others .The characters understand the natural aspects of their world, but the magical elements are not within their understanding.
. . George R. R. Martin set the Ice and Fire story in an alternative world of Earth or a “secondary world”, such as J. R. R. Tolkien pioneered with Middle-earth .
However, Daenerys' growing love for Drogo and newfound mental strength as the Khaleesi of the tribe mean Viserys' plans go unexpectedly and powerfully awry.
Filmed in a Belfast studio and on location elsewhere in Northern Ireland, Malta, Scotland, Croatia, Iceland and Morocco, it premiered on HBO in the United States on April 17, 2011. The series has been renewed for a fourth season, to air in 2014.
House Stark is one of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms and is the principal house of the North. Its seat is at Winterfell, one of the oldest castles in the Seven Kingdoms. Its coat of arms displays a grey direwolf running on a white field, and its words are Winter is Coming.